The Herbalist's Apprentice
by oddfishout
Summary: Elsje's life is perfect. She is learning a trade she loves from the best mentor in the world, the village is peaceful, and it's spring! But when she takes a tip to a mysterious pool that Brenna tells her was made from a dragon's tear, her calm life is swept away in a storm of madness!


The late spring air seemed to wrap around Elsje as she walked up the stone steps that led to her favorite place in the world. She loved the cool humidity that followed the rain. She loved the way the new grass that grew between the cobblestones brushed and soothed her feet as she walked. She even loved the mud and dirt, as annoying as it was to wash out of everything. After all, mud was much preferable to snow that pinched her with cold even through her shoes, and dirt wasn't nearly hard enough to clean to justify keeping all that ice around. No matter if there were a few hardships in springtime, winter was much worse.

As she considered the seasons, Elsje arrived at the door of an old but respectable and homey cottage, with vines crawling all over that were only a bit of brown thread with green lace now, but in midsummer would be covered in riotous blossoms. She did not bother to knock, but simply entered, wiping her feet on the last step before walking in.

"Oh, old Mother Goose, wither hast thou wandered?" She called playfully into the house. "Did you fail to wake up before your lazy apprentice?" Elsje peered through the kitchen that she had entered into, the house being darker than the outside, and waited for her eyes to adjust completely. The curtains were still pulled, a good sign that the woman she was looking for was either caught up in work or had not yet risen.

"Aye, I be awake, ye silly snippet. Ye know as well as I that the plantin' be enough to keep ten o' me as busy as a bee in a meadow." An old woman bustled into view, slightly hunched over and carrying a bundle of dried herbs as she threw open one of the curtains. Elsje blinked in the new light and looked at her mentor, although she had seen her every day for years. The woman was short in stature, and hair that might have once been golden was now a drab grey and kept in a knot at her neck. She wore a stained apron, so that her dress would not get dirty in the course of her work. "And if ye think t' get the jump on me, well, ye might think to be as wise as I be first." Now she stood for a moment, squinting owlishly at her apprentice who stood before her.

The girl she saw was older than when they had first met by almost a decade. There was no trace of the little girl with missing teeth that she had first met in the woods and taught how to discern wild carrots from wild parsley. Even the girl that she had agreed to apprentice was fading. She was no longer a gangly, stuttering teen who was looking for something, anything, to save her from being just another farmer's daughter, and later, a farmer's wife. No, this woman carried herself with a certain quiet pride, which made her tall stature and slightly stocky build seem to belong to a woman of importance, deserving of respect.

"Well. Ye may as well help me, then, child. I be making salve for blisters and burns. The younglings never seem t' be as careful as they should, aye? I be finishing the first batch. Ye are t' be making the basic salve for the next." With that, both women, the herbalist and her student, hurried back to the stillroom in the center of the hut to do their work.

It was never dull work, at least not for Elsje. Although she had done every motion of her current task a thousand- a million- times before, she enjoyed every bit. Every step could be done correctly or not, and she took great pleasure in making sure each time she made something in that room, she made it perfectly. Each herb could be crushed exactly to the right consistency. Each mixture could have the perfect amount of its components. The pot could be stirred so that no part of its contents would be over- or undercooked. If a batch came out wrong due to accident, although it could not be thrown out, it could be used for less important things, like a wild animal that a child brought in. Life was good for Elsje.

There were troubles, of course, but nothing that didn't go away after a day or a month, and nothing to make her worry overmuch. A family pet would take sick, a shepherd would be caught outside in a storm, or a prize bull would wander "unintentionally" into a neighbor's cow lot. After the gossip was over, feelings would be soothed and tempers doused and soon all was normal again.

"Child. Child!" Elsje looked up at the sound of her mentor's voice.

"Yes, Brenna?"

"Ye have time on the rest day, aye?"

"Yes, although I think that we can get enough work done on the work days to satisfy the farmers' needs."

"Aye. That be not what I wish to do. Come to the forest with me that day."

"Are the spring herbs running low?"

"Nay, although that be not a bad thought. I think it be the time for ye to know of a good place to rest your spirit. Do ye ken, the village needs us and we need the village, but the village needs to know that they need us. Aye?"

"So, we take a break to remind them of why they keep us around, then?"

"Aye. And I be showing ye the place to do it." Brenna's sharp brown eyes sparkled with laughter as she gently spun a small bottle of murky green liquid in her hands. "Now, pay attention to the task at hand, or ye'll not like the results."


End file.
